1835 premiere of Gaetano Donizetti's opera Lucia di Lammermoor at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples; based on Sir Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor; number nineteen on the Operabase list of the most-performed operas worldwide.
1868 Henry F. Gilbert – American composer and collector of folk songs (d.1928); best remembered today for his interest in the music of African Americans around the turn of the 20th century.
1898 George Gershwin – American composer, pianist and songwriter (d.1937); his compositions spanned both popular and classical genres; among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions Rhapsody in Blue (1924) and An American in Paris (1928) as well as the opera Porgy and Bess (1935); his death at age 38 from a brain tumor is one of the great tragedies of American music.
1899 William L. Dawson – African American composer, choir director and professor (d.1990); some sources give birthday as September 23; best known works are arrangements and variations on spirituals; his Negro Folk Symphony (1934), premiered by Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra, was revised in 1952 with greater use of African rhythms, inspired by the composer's trip to West Africa.
1991 premiere of Charles Wuorinen's cantata Genesis in San Francisco, Herbert Blomstedt conducting; WCLV's Bill O'Connell was a member of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus at the time.